A Blog About Regenerative Agriculture

I am not trying to be smart with that title but if you watch both of these videos you will understand the title. You might not understand what I am saying in the first video so further down the page I mention the three salient points about the Limousin beef which I debone.

The second video (only 13 seconds) is about what is behind every butcher. The big national supermarkets will have you believe, like the fraud of free range eggs where the hens apparently roam on pasture, that behind every butcher is a farmer whereas the sad reality is that for 99% of butchers behind them is a factory manager. Confinement farming operations, which you are banned from visiting on the spurious grounds of biosecurity, are tough places to experience. They stink because of the build up of manure. It matters not whether you go and see cattle, sheep, pigs, laying hens or broiler chickens the listlessness and vacant stares of the animals is unforgettable. Cattle are on a diet that violates their digestive system. 90% of the antibiotics issued in this country go into these supermarket supported factories. Animal manure which has the central role in regenerative agriculture builds up and eventually pollutes the waterways and ensure that you breathe in faecal dust.

All the animal protein needed in this country could be produced off multi species pastures with the biggest area being the sugarcane fields of KZN and Mpumalanga. Imagine no sugar and how that would lead us from being the third most obese country in the world to one of the healthiest. Our meat would also have the Omega 3’s and 6’s in balance and as long as the animals are managed in the Alan Savory inspired high density grazing method we would be sequestering gigatons of Carbon. Here is is how our tiny operation sequesters Carbon. More on how organics can feed the world is here.

If all this beef chat bores you then skip toward the end of the first video where the talking stops.

First the Limousin is the best bull to use for increasing your profitability. Put another way if you keep your expense the same by keeping your cow (who is adapted to your farm) you will increase your income if her calf was sired by a Limousin bull because the calf will be heavier, at weaning, than if sired by a bull of another breed. 85% of Limousin’s have a genetic mutation that causes double the number of muscle fibres. This enables a small calf at birth but a muscled one at weaning time.

Second, I am deboning a forequarter (weighing 105kgs) of a 400kg carcass. Normal confinement/grainfed/feedlot beef carcasses weigh around 250kgs. Limousin is a slow maturing breed which means they take a long time to get fat, but because they have the muscle this does not matter as in the butchery it takes equally long to debone a 250kg or 400kg carcass so your income is obviously greater. Also by the time the Limousin is fat on grass it is 3 to 4 years old which ensures flavour. The confinement beef is less than 12 months old which is why basting of the burgers and all the steak sauces are so important because the beef has no flavour, except that of maize/antibiotics/growth hormones/asthma drugs that it was raised on.

Third the Limousin has the highest dressing out % of any of the beef breeds. % of carcass as that of live weight. This is the most important metric for me, the farmer/butcher. Same effort for more meat.

In my case having an animal on the farm for a long time is no problem as my production costs are very low. The sun grows my cattle feed for free, the sun powers the electric fence behind which they are moved twice a day and I have one labourer for 350 cattle. Compare this to the cost of urea, maize, antibiotics, enzymes, anti acid medication, asthma drugs etc etc

Like all the other videos, this one is unedited and the filming was done by Mbhekiseni who is being trained up to be Spencer’s right hand.

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I grew up on a cattle ranch in Kwa-Zulu Natal. Studied Management Accounting at Stellenbosch University before stockbroking for Goldman Sachs in London for just over four years. Declined the offer of promotion, left my job and moved to South Africa. Built a clay home with inspiration from various people on the way leading to me become a biodynamic student, grass farmer and carbon sequestrator.